


Today Was

by Anonymous



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Genderbending, Genderswap, Sharing a Bed, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fem!Yugi, wishshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28310097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: (Based in Joey Taylor's incredible Enneadverse) Yugi is gifted a day off during the holidays! She and her friends head out on a camping trip, but a chance encounter splits up the group. Yugi and Jou have to figure it out alone.total sharing a bed fluff // fem!yugixjou
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Mutou Yuugi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5
Collections: Anonymous





	Today Was

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JoeyTaylor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeyTaylor/gifts).



> The author has attempted to mimic the rich lore and details of Enneadverse but is not as immaculate as its original author! Please check out the Ennead series by JoeyTaylor! AND KNOW THIS IS NOT CANON/WRITTEN BY JOEY IN ANY WAY. This is a Secret Santa gift! MERRY CHRISTMAS, JOEY!

An orange, pink, and purple gradient bled into the approaching night behind Yugi. She clenched a hair tie between her teeth as she gathered up her coarse, black hair. Her eyes were half-lidded as she walked towards the sunset. The last light’s flare brought out the red-tinted tips of her ponytail.

After another exhausting holiday shift, she’d fallen asleep in her last period. She’d had to stay late and write an essay as punishment. By the end, her hand cramped and her sentences were illegible. The teacher seemed to accept it out of sympathy alone.

She’d had a tiny hope her friends would’ve waited for her. Naturally, they didn’t; she’d taken an hour and a half.

_‘I wouldn’t hold it against them, Imoto.’_ Her twin’s phantasm hovered alongside her stride. _‘They likely have tie-ups of their own. As I understand, the time surrounding this ‘holiday’ is... very against the definition of the word.’_

Yugi nodded. “I wouldn’t dare. At the same time, I want all the time around them I can before diving back into hell.”

The Spirit offered a half smile. _‘I’m with you.’_

She returned with a bright, wide grin. The real smile was refreshing since she’d grown accustomed to the fake mask she plastered on during her shifts. “Thank you.”

Over her shoulder, the night rolled on. Her lips pressed together. Why, on top of everything else, did the days have to be so short? The early nights turned the season that much more depressing.

_‘Anesan?’_

She blinked and met the eyes of the apparition before her. Her twin faced the night, and its influence tinted the color of her fuchsia irises.

Yugi asked, “Is something wrong?”

_‘...Nothing. Tonight, may I take you up on your offer from the other day? I’d be willing to try the ‘hot cocoa’ you mentioned.’’_

When Yugi closed her eyes, she felt the weight of the bags beneath. “I can’t wait.”

Dusk descended as the pair went on. By the time the shop was in sight, Yugi’s shadow was twice her size. She frowned and glanced back. The first stars pinpricked the dark sky. A steady stream of customers waited for their turn to enter the tiny shop.

A familiar group had gathered on the sidewalk outside. Anzu noticed Yugi first; she waved and got the others to join her. The damper on Yugi’s mood miraculously lifted as she ran to her friends.

“Hi, guys!” she said. “I like your hat, Jou!”

“ _Hat_?” A headband kept a tiny Santa hat atop his cranium. He ran a hand through his hair, and when his fingers touched the soft fabric, his expression soured. “I don’t want to talk about the hat.”

Yugi’s brows pushed together. “Huh? Why?”

Laughter burst out of Honda. He doubled over, saying, “He lost a bet! The idiot thought he could eat a whole fruit cake!”

“Not fair,” Jou grumbled. “The thing isn’t food. It’s a brick.”

“Considering it keeps well for decades,” Amane said, “I’m inclined to agree!”

Yugi giggled. “Hope you didn’t chip a tooth!”

“Hope he did,” Anzu grumbled. “How are you, Yugi? Did the essay turn out okay? He wasn’t too hard on you, right? And there wasn’t any funny business from him-”

She waved her hands for Anzu to stop. “It’s okay! I’m okay; I promise. Everything was fine. He actually, er, had some pity on me. I know the writing turned out terrible.”

Jounochi scraped a toothpick between his teeth. The point freed a hard-looking piece of fruit. “You need a break, Yuge. That’s why we’re here!”

She forced a smile. “I appreciate it. You know I do, but I have to help Jii-san in the shop.”

“Please take a look inside, Yugi,” Amane said.

Her brow forward as she stepped to the side. Through the glass doors, she spotted two figures helping Sugoroku in the shop. Further inspection allowed Yugi to recognize them as her classmates. She shook her head. “No. No, Jii-san didn’t have to do that for me. He shouldn’t be using his money-”

“ _We_ pooled _our_ money together,” Anzu explained, “and hired them to cover for yours and Jou’s shifts over the weekend!”

“Why?”

Honda caught Jou and Yugi in a headlock hug and pulled them close. “We’re going Christmas camping!”

The tall backpacks they carried suddenly made sense to Yugi. The sleeping bags atop the packs were rolled tight as a maki rolls. Yugi said, “Er, we did plenty of camping back in Duelist Kingdom.”

“That was months ago!” Jou said. “C’mon, Yuge. You need a break. I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer!”

Amane sidled up to Yugi and whispered, “It’s perfectly fine if you would like to do something else.”

Honda said, “No other options! Look! I’ve got your supplies and sleeping back all put together, and I’ll carry it for you!”

To prove his point, he lifted the large backpack by one strap. Yugi _did_ notice it was the only one on the ground. She asked, “Where were you thinking of going? Aokigahara? Hiking up Mt. Fuji?”

“Too depressing,” Jou said to the first point.

Honda recited an old proverb: “The man who climbs Mt. Fuji once is a prophet. The man who climbs Mt. Fuji twice is a fool.”

“True,” Amane murmured. “It doesn’t have much to look at.”

Anzu took Yugi’s hands, and she was shocked by the other girl’s warmth. “You do need some time off – you and Meisa. We know how hard it is on you year after year, so here’s your Christmas gift! We’re just going to a nearby forest, so you we’ll be close by if anything goes wrong here! We’re also cleared by all our parents and, of course, with your Jii-san!”

She sniffled. Tears built in the corners of her eyes. “Y-you guys- I couldn’t ask for better friends. I’ll go grab my coat and scarf, okay? Let’s go camping!”

Their group of five raised a collective cheer.

* * *

A sugaring of snow decorated the evergreen forest. The sunset glistened orange over the pines. Yugi shuffled along, and her stride left a pair of lines in the millimetres of snow. She’d brought a thermos of hot cocoa for Meisa to try, which was her only item to carry at the moment.

Honda, true to his word, had a backpack on both sides of his torso. Yugi asked him frequently if she could lighten his load, and he always declined her. I’m fine, he’d say, or you insult me, or anything along those lines.

Amane pointed out the few birds braving the cold. A pair of cardinals, their red stark against the white and green landscape, flitted through the snowy branches. A lone blue jay staked out nests.

Anzu said, “I didn’t know you were so skilled at bird spotting!”

Amane shrugged. “My Okasan liked it. I still have her books, so...”

“Oh, my gosh!” Yugi said. “When is our next Monster World session? We totally forgot to plan it! I’m so sorry, Amane!”

“No, it’s fine! We all know how busy you’ve been. The holidays are rough on us all.”

“But,” Yugi whined, “but I need to know what happens with the manticore.”

“It’ll probably be another riddle I’ll die to,” Jou grumbled.

“Jou.” Honda glared at him. “You have no one to blame but yourself for your three dead characters.”

“Pulling the lever was bullshit!”

“All you had to do was _not_ pull it!”

Anzu shoved them apart. “No fighting! I way preferred Amane telling us about the wildlife.”

“Hm,” Amane said. The crunching of snow underfoot filled the silence. “Over there is a brown thrasher with a mockingbird nearby. Those finches are gathering sticks for a nest, and up ahead is-”

Amane skidded to a stop. Yugi spun on her heel; the other girl stared ahead with wide eyes. Yugi asked, “What’s the matter?”

The others had stopped, too. Amane said, “B-b-b.”

“Buh what?” Jou said.

“B-b-bear. It’s a grizzly bear, a mother, and her cubs are behind the pines next to her.” Yugi followed Amane’s line of sight. Sure enough, the black, beady eyes of the bear watched the group metres ahead.

Amane continued, “She’ll be angry and lash out since her children are there. We need to run. Run! But not all in the same direction, because she’ll definitely chase us then. Run in different directions and hold your arms high in the air to look threatening! _Run_!”

The next moments felt like hours packed into seconds for Yugi. The thrum of her pulse drowned out all but the roar of the charging bear. She ran to the right and threw up her arms like Amane advised. Another pair of feet ran beside her.

She daren’t look back.

_‘Anesan.’_

The cold air bit the skin of her face as she sprinted. Her mittens weren’t able to keep hold of the thermos. She left the cocoa to spill onto the snow.

_‘Anesan!’_

The transparent form of her twin appeared in front of her, holding up a flat hand to stop her. She halted and doubled over. Her sharp intakes of breath burned her lungs. Meisa said, _‘You are alright. The bear did not follow.’_

She wanted to say thank you or are you sure or anything. The frigid air hurt on the way in and out. A warm hand landed on her back. She flinched away. Jou held up his flat palms. “Oop! Sorry for scaring you, Yuge. I went with you. Looks like it’s just us.”

It amazed her how he didn’t seem to be out of breath at all. She spun around, scanning the distance. She didn’t spot any living beings between the tree trunks. The cluster of trees was thicker where she and Jou had run.

“So we-” Yugi gulped down a breath. “We turn around?”

“As long as the bear’s gone- er. Yuge. Did we come from that way?”

He pointed in a direction. Yugi had spun around enough times that she had no idea the direction they’d come from. “We could call them! Where’s your phone? Mine died.”

“Errrrrr.” Jou ran a hand through his hair. “I left mine at home so Okasan wouldn’t bug me. Sorry, Yuge.”

Her heart pounded against her ribcage. “We can- if we yell their names loud enough- no. That’ll attract the bear, or... anything else out here.”

“Getting dark, too,” Jou said. The tippy tops of the tree shadows stretched taller than the Kame Game Shop. Yugi gulped. “What do you think? Do we stay around here for the night?”

Yugi stared at her waterproof boots. Bits of dirty snow clung to the tops. “There’s a big, big problem with that.”

“Yeah?”

“Honda had my supplies. I don’t even have a sleeping bag.”

She peered up through her lashes at Jou. Blushes blossomed on his face, the red spreading beyond his windburnt cheeks. “Y-you can take mine! I’ll sleep on the ground or something! Anything!”

The corners of Yugi’s lips twitched up despite it all. Jou, the true gentleman. “I could never do that to you.”

“What do we do?”

Yugi breathed in deep, clenched her fists at her sides, and met his eyes. “We share it.”

* * *

Jou and Yugi’s breaths were ghosts in the dark. They both stood over the single sleeping bag. A tiny bundle of sticks with a small, small flame burned beside it. The embers threw too many shadows for Yugi’s liking; she glanced over her shoulder every other second.

_‘Imoto. Do not fear. I will watch over you both all night. You will hear from me if anything is awry.’_

The phantasm before her had a face without fear. Yugi, for the millionth time, wondered how her twin was so brave. For the millionth time, she took comfort in it.

“Errrrr,” Jou said. “Ladies first.”

“Is it alright if I ask you to go first? I have quite a few more things to take off.” Jou straightened, his face flushed. Yugi said, “No, I didn’t mean- my shoes and coat! That’s all!”

“Right! Of course! I know!”

He kicked off his shoes and quickly slipped inside the sleeping bag. Yugi couldn’t help but notice he’d buried his head inside. She laughed a little to herself. She hid her Puzzle deep within Jou’s backpack. Her shoes and scarf rested next to the fire. She debated on keeping the coat or shedding it. Seeing all the snow matted to the shoulders, she figured leaving it out was better than getting Jou wet.

Yugi tapped his shoulder. He barely pulled back the lip of the sleeping bag, showing only his eye behind his blond bangs. She offered a saccharine smile. “May I come in?”

He moved aside and stretched open the bag. Yugi stuck her feet inside. The puffy material was already warm thanks to Jou. The further in she slid, the more of her body pressed against his. Her toes touched his shins, and her cheek pressed against his chest.

His heartbeat was loud in her ear.

“Sorry it’s not roomier.”

She swore she’d never heard him whisper before. She raised her head to find he was staring back. Their shallow breaths intermingled. Time stopped. Her hand lay over his heart, and she felt its pulse quicken and quicken.

She whispered back, “I think I prefer it.”

His brows raised slowly. His arms wrapped around her, and he said, “Is this okay?”

“I think I prefer that, too.”

His face was buried in her shoulder, and she could feel his smile. The image of that smile in her mind’s eye inspired her own. Her arms snaked around his torso. At night in the middle of the woods in winter, she never imagined such warmth could exist.

Then Jou snored.

Yugi snorted her laughter. She rested her head on his arm and joined him in dreamland.

There, she had a hard time convincing herself today was a disaster – and that she was anything but safe.


End file.
